Event Summary

Holyrood Insight is delighted to announce its timely, innovative Tackling Health Inequalities in Scotland Conference, taking place in Edinburgh next March.

Chaired by Fiona Hogg, Chief People Officer at the Scottish Government, our thoroughly researched and expert-led practical event, will examine how Scotland can improve ill-health and reduce health inequalities over the next decade. This is a key mission for Scottish Government, following the publication of the Population Health Framework (PHF) in June.

We are delighted that Jenni Minto MSP, Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health, will give the keynote address for this important conference.

After decades of improvement, Scotland’s health is worsening. with the lowest life expectancy in Western Europe.  Moreover, people in the most deprived communities die more than a decade earlier than those in the wealthiest areas.  Analyses project a 21% increase in the burden of disease in Scotland over the next 20 years.  This situation must be tackled urgently.

The PHF marks a crucial shift in approach, with the responsibility for health extending beyond the NHS, with actions across sectors to transform health outcomes and tackle health inequalities, through a Prevention Focussed System, with collective accountability.

We will examine the four overlapping drivers of health and wellbeing, identified in the PHF: improving the social and economic factors; creating healthy and sustainable places through communities; developing supportive environments; and Equitable Health and Care.

We will look at prevention, early intervention, maximising access, and providing quality services.  We will discuss how the large, and (in some areas) growing, life expectancy gap can be reduced, by 2035.  We will also focus on the immediate priorities over the next few years.

How do we embrace and deliver on such an ambitious strategy?  How do we work across all sectors effectively and efficiently?  What can the Scottish Government do to ensure continuity and a joined-up approach with this policy, whose ambition stretches beyond the length of a Parliament?  And how, in a challenging economic environment, with constrained resources, can you put in place the necessary building blocks for successful impact?

Tackling Health Inequalities is a wide-ranging, far-reaching, cross-cutting challenge; an issue of growing concern; and an issue with ambitious ideas for solutions.  It reaches into the heart of every community and concerns not only health, but encompassing areas including housing, children’s services, education, and community engagement.

Join us, at our collaborative and cross-cutting conference, and learn about innovative strategies, focussed case studies, panel sessions, and senior expert spotlights. Engage with peers, practitioners, and specialists, from local and central government, and voluntary sector; from health, social care, communities, education, housing, and employment.

Key Points

• Examining primary prevention through a ‘whole system approach’.
• Strategies for prevention (and early intervention) of ill health to create a sustainable, public health system: how do we safeguard its future so that it isn’t overburdened?
• Innovation in health emergencies: a spotlight on strategies for tackling obesity.
• Looking at evidence-based policies for health and wellbeing and reducing inequalities.
• Spotlighting partnership working, for example, the Collaboration for Health Equity in Scotland; and collaboration across NHS boards, local authorities, and communities.
• Tackling inequalities in access, experiences, and outcomes in healthcare in Scotland, such as by monitoring uptake of services, and designing services accessible for all.
• Learning about collaborative, innovative concepts like ‘Health in All Policies’; and discussing the creation of a ‘Wellbeing Economy’, and ‘Community Wealth Building’.
• Place-based, locally tailored interventions to tackle ill health and inequality.
• We will look at the implementation of the PHF in the wider context of the Public Service Reform Strategy and the Health and Social Care Service Renewal Framework.
• Key challenges and opportunities for improvement; and the choice of initial priorities and actions outlined in the framework.
• We will discuss how to monitor progress on this far-reaching, ambitious strategy.